Maxwell's to close amid 'changing nature of Hoboken'

For decades, it’s been the place to go for music in Hudson County. Nirvana played there; Yo La Tengo celebrated Chanukah there annually; Bruce Springsteen shot his "Glory Days" video there. Music lovers hung by the jukebox, ate burgers and pasta under its tin ceiling, and crowded into a back room that felt to many like hallowed ground.

It’s the neighborhood bar and grill with world-renowned bands, and one of the Mile Square City’s claims to fame — a club so intimately associated with the Hoboken rock scene it’s virtually synonymous with it.

Hoboken is going to need another synonym. Maxwell’s is closing its doors at the end of July.

Its lease is up then. But contrary to rumors, the 200-capacity club is not getting ousted by its landlord.

"We were offered a renewal with rates that weren’t necessarily onerous," says Todd Abramson, the club’s co-owner. "They were in keeping with the city. But after much thought, given the changing nature of Hoboken and the difficulties of trying to run a business in this town, we decided it was time."

This is one of several major changes affecting the Garden State’s rock scene. The Maxwell’s news comes amid reports of behind-the-scenes turmoil at the Wellmont Theatre in Montclair; the Wellmont has no shows booked beyond June 20. The Starland Ballroom in Sayreville, sidelined for months after sustaining damage in Hurricane Sandy, is finally announcing new shows.

Maxwell’s, says Abramson, will invite back some old friends to finish its remarkable run.

"On July 31, I think we’re going to go out the way we came in — with the band ‘a,’ " he says. a, which featured members of the Bongos and Glenn Morrow (who later founded Hoboken’s Bar/None Records), was the first act to play Maxwell’s, which opened in 1978.

"The explosion of Maxwell’s was something that was so organic," says Richard Barone of the Bongos, also planning to play on closing night. "It happened so fast, it was like spontaneous combustion. It’s what pop stars aspire to, and in this case, Maxwell’s was itself a pop star."

That was a very different time in Hoboken. Rents were relatively affordable, and the boom in condominium development hadn’t seized Hudson County. Hoboken became an arts town, and an offbeat and provocative rock scene thrived there. Journalists spoke of a "Hoboken sound" — hypnotic, gritty, pitched somewhere between the pastoral and the post-industrial. As the years went by, there were other places in town to play. But Maxwell’s was always the flagship venue.

Abramson, who lives in town, said the municipal government discussed options with him once it became clear he was serious about shutting the doors.

"When I first heard that Maxwell’s might close, I made it a priority to do everything we could to help them stay open," says Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer. "While I’m saddened to see it go, I understand that things change, and Todd and his team did everything they could to make it work."

The club’s proximity to New York was an advantage. But Maxwell’s has no parking lot. As Abramson continued to book bands with national reputations, fans would find no place to park. In the ’70s and ’80s, it was easy for a touring group to stash a van on River Road, the stretch of asphalt that runs along the Hudson. The renovation of the old Maxwell House factory — from which the club got its name — into condominiums ended that possibility.

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"Parking has always been difficult in this town," says Abramson, who started working at the club in 1986 and became a co-owner along with Steve Shelley of Sonic Youth and Dave Post of Swingadelic after an infamous spell in the mid-’90s when Maxwell’s was reimagined as a microbrewery. "But now, for all intents and purposes, it’s been outlawed. I’ve had bands whose vans have been booted because the signs are so unclear."

As Hoboken changed, Maxwell’s lost much of its initial clientele. Artists, live music fanatics and offbeat characters who gave the Mile Square much of its flavor have either been priced out or have chosen to move away. Many of the bars, bookstores and record stores that felt continuous with Maxwell's have closed, or fallen on tough times. Increasingly, Abramson felt like a man on an island.

"The culture in Hoboken is driven by TV now. A lot of the bars downtown are fighting with each other for who has the most giant TVs. That’s what Hoboken nightlife has become."

Many places are called landmarks, but Maxwell’s really was one.It's a place with real personality in a town that is rapidly homogenizing. Even among great rock clubs, the room had a special reputation. Few other small venues bother to feed the bands. Maxwell's always did. Those kinds of gestures -- including reasonable prices, a generous door policy, and a comfortable lounge -- made musicians and fans alike cultivate protective feelings about the space.

Abramson, who lives in Hoboken, will continue to book the Bell House, a larger venue in Gowanus. He has also booked concerts at the Landmark Loews Theatre in Jersey City, and may do so again.

"A change of scenery isn't going to be bad for me," says Abramson. "It's been a long time."